Kupala
is the pen name of the outstanding Byelorussian poet, Ivan Lulsevich.
According to folk legends, the short July night of Ivan Kupala (St.
John the Baptist) - a very popular Slavic holiday -is when fern
begins to bloom in the thick of the forest. This herb is believed to
possess some magic power. He who finds it and tears away its flower
shall forever be happy....

The son of a
landless Byelorussian peasant, Dominik Lutsevich, Ivan (or simply
Yanka) sought the legendary'flower of happiness not in the thick of
the forest but in the depths of human life. Not for himself, but for
his downtrodden people who for centuries had been destined to bear
the unbearable yoke of national and social oppression.

For
the first time, the name of Yanka Kupala appeared on May 15, 1905, in
the newspaper Severo-Zapadny Krai
(The North-Western Land), under his poem A
Muzhik. Both the period and the
circumstances surrounding his poetic debut se Читать далее...

T he
following text will introduce you to the topic of the production
possibility frontier. Look at the way it is divided into paragraphs.
Pay attention to the heading and notes in the margins, and to the
table.look at these questions. 1.
What types of good are used as an example? 2. What law is explained?
3. What does Table 1-3 show? 4. When additional workers are added,
does output per worker rise or fail? 5. What term is used to describe
what happens when society gives up units of food production to get
more film output? Read the passage through and find the answers to
the questions. Remember, you do not have to understand every word to
answer them. A hypothetical economy

THE
PRODUCTION POSSIBILITY FRONTIER

To
see how this tool helps us to think about scarcity and the problem of
what to produce, we consider a hypothetical economy in which there
are two types of go Читать далее...

Communication
process is not limited to what we say with words. There are 3 elements of
communication: Words (7% of information is communicated though words), Body
language (55%) and tone of voice (38%). Thus, 93% of communication is
non-verbal.

The
patterns of non-verbal communication that people use are defined by their
culture, gender and social status.

There
are several types of Non-verbal communication: Kinesics, Proxemics, Chronemics,
Oculesics, Haptics.

Proxemics
– the use of interpersonal space. For example Greeks and South Americans find
it comfortable to stand, sit or talk to people at a distance which seems to North
Americans and some Europeans intolerably close.

The
closeness of Greeks and South Americans is unusual to Eur Читать далее...

Perhaps everyone has ever asked himself a question: 'Is my lifestyle healthy?'. If you ask 100
people the most popular answer is most likely to be 'No'. Besides health freaks that want to live to be a hundred noone does much to improve their health or at
least not to harm it. I must confess that I do nothing about my health.

Some years ago most people used to keep fit by doing morning exercises. Now it has all gone. The
greatest thing one can do in the morning is to rush to his kitchen to have a cup of coffee. Unaware that coffee harms his heart, of course. It has been
estimated that more than 20% of Americans who are over 19 are smokers. This number must be even more for Russia. Passive smokers are uncountable. Extremely
unhealthy food rose a guy named McDonald to worldwide stardom. The multi-million fast-food business is based on harming people's health. Computer
games make people short-sighted. Moreover, they top the list of the most Читать далее...

Hobby
is what a person likes to do in his spare time. Hobbies differ like
tastes. If you have chosen a hobby according to your character and
taste you are lucky because your life becomes more interesting. The
most popular hobby is doing things. It includes a wide variety of
activities from gardening to traveling, from chess to volleyball.
Both grown-ups and children are fond of playing different computer
games. This hobby is becoming more and more popular. Making things
include drawing, painting, handicrafts. Many people collect something
- coins, stamps, compact discs, toys, books. Some collections have
some value. Rich people often collect paintings, rare things and
other art objects. Often such private collections are given to
museums, libraries.

As
for me, I like to listen to music. 3 months ago my parents bought me
a compact disc player and I decided to collect compact discs. I like
different music, it should be good. I collect discs of my favourit Читать далее...

Despite a minimum legal drinking age of 21, many young people in the United States
consume alcohol. Some abuse alcohol by drinking frequently or by binge drinking--often defined as having five or more drinks* in a row. A minority of
youth may meet the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) criteria for alcohol dependence (1,2). The
progression of drinking from use to abuse to dependence is associated with biological and psychosocial factors. This Alcohol Alert examines some of
these factors that put youth at risk for drinking and for alcohol-related problems and considers some of the consequences of their drinking.

Prevalence of Youth Drinking

Thirteen- to fifteen-year-olds are at high risk to begin drinking (3). According to
results of an annual survey of students in 8th, 10th, and 12th grades, 26 percent of 8th graders, 40 percent of 10th graders, and 51 percent of 12th
graders reported drinking alcohol withi Читать далее...

There are about 60 youth
organizations in Great Britain. All youth organizations can be divided into
three large groups: 1. non-political organizations; 2. youth organizations
associated with political parties; 3. youth organizations controlled by
religious bodies.

The two largest non-political youth
organizations are the associations of the Boy Scouts and the Girl Guides. There
are about 1300000 boys and girls in them. The membership is voluntary.

The Scout Association was formed in
1908 by General Baden Powell. His idea was to train boys in mapping, signaling,
knotting, first aid and all the skills that would arise from camping and
outdoor activities. Most important of all for a Scout was to make a promise
that he would do his best to do his duty to.

The Boy Scouts had a left-handed
handshake, a special badge and the motto “Be Prepared”. The Scout Law embraces
“honour, obedience, cheerfulness, thrift and cleanliness in thought and deed.

Today it is
fashionable to speak about teenage problems. A few years ago alcohol, fights,
killings and other kinds of violence were more problems for adults than for
young people.

But now, as
official reporta admit, violence, AIDS, drugs and alcohol are more and more
associated with youngerst. For many children from poor families violence,
drinking problems and all that is associated with poverty becomes more real
than reality.

The Government
surveys show that every fifth teenager who was arrested for criminal actions,
was younger that 14 and couldn't be sent to prison. Almost half of teenagers
have an experience with drugs, alcohol and sex under age of 16. A lot of
teenagers who have drug or alcohol addiction almost never believe that they are
dependent. These things are often combined with family and school problems.
What has gone wrong? Some specialists explane that the changes of our society,
the system of our life force young people to choose th Читать далее...

When you leave school you understand that the time of
your independence life and the beginning of a far more serious examination of
your abilities and character has come. You also understand that from now you’ll
have to do everything yourself, and to “fight” with everybody around you for
better life. The first problem that young people meet is to choose their future
profession, it means that they have to choose the future of their life. It’s
not an easy task to make the right choice of a job. You know children have a
lot of dreams about their future : to become a superman or a policeman or a
doctor … It’s very easy they think, but when they become older and see real
world they understand that in all professions need to know perfectly about what
you do, you must be well-educated and well-informed. That’s why I think it’s
very important to have a good education at school. And if you work hard
everything will be OK. Another problem of young people is drugs. This is a
relat Читать далее...

When you leave school you understand that the time of
your independence life and the beginning of a far more serious examination of
your abilities and character has come. You also understand that from now you’ll
have to do everything yourself, and to “fight” with everybody around you for
better life. The first problem that young people meet is to choose their future
profession, it means that they have to choose the future of their life. It’s
not an easy task to make the right choice of a job. You know children have a
lot of dreams about their future : to become a superman or a policeman or a
doctor … It’s very easy they think, but when they become older and see real
world they understand that in all professions need to know perfectly about what
you do, you must be well-educated and well-informed. That’s why I think it’s
very important to have a good education at school. And if you work hard
everything will be OK. Another problem of young people is drugs. This is a
relat Читать далее...

To some observers, teens today may
seem spoiled (undisciplined and egocentric) compared to those of earlier times.
The reality, however, is different. While poverty has decreased and political
turmoil has lessened, young people are still under many types of stress. Peer
pressure, changing family conditions, mobility of families and unemployment are
just a few reasons why some young people may try to escape reality by turning
to alcohol or drugs. However, most young people in the United States do not
have problems with drinking, drug abuse, teen pregnancies or juvenile
delinquency. Drug use (marijuana and cocaine are the most commonly used drugs)
has decreased among young people in the United States within the last 10 years,
though alcohol abuse has increased.

According to a 1991 government
survey, about 8 million teenagers are weekly users of alcohol, including more
than 450,000 who consume an average of 15 drinks a week. And, although all 50
states prohibit the Читать далее...

Yuri Gagarin was the first cosmonaut in the world. Yuri Alexeyevich
Gagarin was born on the 9th of March, 1934. He was born in the
village of Klushino in the Smolensk region.

Yura was an active, brave and curious boy. His father was jack of all
trades and he helped his son when Yura made toy planes by hand. But
the war began. Yuri Gagarin and his mother, father, brother and
sister left their house and had to live in a dug-out.

After the war Gagarin's family moved to Gzhatsk, now it is Gagarin.
It was named after the first cosmonaut.

In 1951 Gagarin graduated from a vocational school in Lyubertsy near
Moscow.

Yuri Gagarin attended an aeroclub and began to fly when he was a
student of a technical secondary school in Saratov.

In 1955 he entered a school for pilots. Then he became a pilot and
joined the first group of cosmonauts.

April 12, 1961 will never be
forgotten. On that day Yuri Alexeyevich Gagarin was launched into space. He
circled the globe in the spaceship "Vostok" for 108 minutes. Gagarin
was taking an enormous risk, because at that time nobody knew how a human being
would stand up to space flight. Before Yuri Gagarin was launched into outer
space he met the people who had prepared the rocket. He thanked them for their
work and said he would do everything he could to make his flight successful. Yuri
was in great spirits. The cosmonauts spent the evening at a cottage which is
now called the Yuri Gagarin Memorial Cottage. Then he had one more normal
working day which was worked out to the minute: morning exercises, breakfast,
medical examination, putting on the spacesuit, checking the suit, leaving for
the launching site and so on.

Yuri Gagarin's flight opened the
door into the Universe Those 108 minutes were a turning-point in history. The
dreams of generations, the ideas o Читать далее...